#MySundayPhoto - September 14th

All the way back in April, Little Miss planted some sunflower seeds. She watered and cared for them, helping me to re-pot them when they grew too big and eventually plant them out in the garden. With all of her care and watering and some help from the beautiful weather we've been treated to this Summer, they've grown almost as tall as the fence!! They're about to flower and my Little Miss is very excited - she's so pleased to see such a small seed grow into her gorgeous tall sunflowers.

#WickedWednesday - August 20th

"Gooooooaaaaallllllll!!!!"

While I was sorting the laundry the other day all I could hear from the garden was talk of football teams and scoring goals. It's lovely to listen to my two play together and their small age gap really shows through when they do - some days I love to just sit and listen and watch them play together, forming their close friendship as Brother and Sister.

That day though, even though the bonding was lovely, I encountered two little 'terrors' playing a great game of football together....in my flowerbeds!! The goal was the rose of sharon (thankfully it had finished flowering and I hadn't planted anything else around there yet) and it was taking one heck of a pummelling. Cheeky little monkeys!

#MySundayPhoto - August 17th

We've been growing our own food again this year and, after a lot of waiting, it's finally time to start picking everything! Most of the bell, barancio and chili peppers are still green so they're going on the window-sill to ripen up. The tomatoes are looking great though and we almost have enough to make a yummy homemade tomato soup :)

Growing Our Own Tomatoes - It's Time To Start Picking!

The kids have been watering and caring for their tomato plants for the last few months. Each morning they'd be out looking after them and watching their tomatoes gradually grow. There's been a lot of excitement this week as, after weeks of waiting patiently (no easy thing for my 'terrors'), some of the tomatoes were ready to be picked!!

They pointed out the red and orange ones and gently picked them off the plants. The gorgeous red tomatoes have gone into the fridge until we're ready to use them and the few orange ones they collected have joined my chili and bell pepper's on the window-sill to ripen a bit more.

We want to make something with our tomatoes that we will all enjoy; that was the whole point of growing our own after all. After a bit of thinking and some suggestions from the kids we've settled on making tomato soup. It's a firm favourite in our family and should be quite simple to get the kids involved in the making and cooking of it. When we have a few more ripe tomatoes we'll start making - I can't wait, and I don't think the kids can either!!

N is for...

...NATURE

My two 'terrors' are firm lovers of the outdoors and we are quite lucky in our garden that there's quite a bit of nature to be found. Most nights there are hedgehogs snuffling around in the shrubs and in the morning's the surrounding trees are littered with birds, big and small. We've even come across a Sparrowhawk...complete with captured Sparrow in it's talons!

With the warmer weather and the beautiful sunshine we've been seeing an awful lot of butterflies in assorted colours and patterns and we seem to be a bit of a 'hot spot' for dragonflies too; there are several that frequent our garden, the biggest almost the size of my hand! The kids are greatly impressed by all the birds, bees and bugs they come across outside and each trip into the garden seems to turn up even more little creatures for them to discover.

A  B  C  D  E  F  G

H  I  J  K  L  M

The Sunflower Race, 2014!

A few months back my eldest terror planted some Sunflower seeds. With lots of care, watering and love from her and I they grew big and strong and too tall for the greenhouse. We picked out a spot at the bottom of the garden where they would have plenty of space to grow even bigger and last weekend we planted them. We chose a Sunflower each (my eldest got to chose 2 as she planted the seeds) and our Sunflower Race began!!

I have fond memories of sunflower races with my family during the summer months of my childhood. My little Brother and I used to water ours in the hope that they would grow bigger and win the 'race' and I'm so excited that my two little terrors are old enough to enjoy and join in with the first sunflower race of their own.

So, the line-up! Terror 2 has Sunflower 1, which started the race at 18.5" and a little sideways (I need to find some bamboo canes I think!) and Daddy is Sunflower 2 which started at 16.5". I was assigned Sunflower 3 by my eldest which started at 18" and Terror 1 chose Sunflowers 4 & 5 for herself which started the race at 19" & 18.5".

We'll be measuring our Sunflowers every weekend to see how they're growing and the person with the tallest Sunflower when it's at full flower wins!

#MySundayPhoto #SilentSunday - July 13th

 

#MySundayPhoto #SilentSunday - July 6th

 

H is for...

We have two beautiful Honeysuckle's growing in our garden; one has white and yellow flowers and the other, my favourite, has deep pinky-red and cream flowers. They are beautiful, smell gorgeous and I cannot wait for them to burst into flower! It doesn't look like they are far off!!

A  B  C  D  E  F  G

G is for...

The last couple of years have given us a little practice at growing our own and this year is no different. We planted most of our seeds for assorted peppers, tomatoes, phlox, marigolds and sunflowers along with some sprouted garlic segments back in March. Since then we've had lots of gorgeous sunshine accompanied by some showers, the perfect conditions for growing...and our little plants have LOVED it!!

They've grown so quickly and everything has been moved into bigger pots this week. The peppers have emerged from the greenhouse and have found a new home in a much larger pot. They have begun to flower and we're expecting to see the beginning of the peppers growing soon. Our tomatoes have been following their example and have burst into bloom; our eldest's plant is also sporting the first tomato of the year! She already has plans for cheese and tomato sandwiches once it has grown and ripened :)

Everything is growing well in our garden this Summer and I'm sure a lot of it has been down to the beautiful weather we've been treated to over the last couple of months. My two terrors have been shooting up too!

A  B  C  D  E  F

Growing Our Own: June Update

We've been very grateful for all of the gorgeous, sunny weather we've had throughout May and into June. It's been warm and lovely, despite a few days of rain, and all of us have loved being able to get outside and enjoy the garden.

We're not the only ones that have been revelling in the warmer weather though...our little seeds seem to have enjoyed it too! After a couple of weeks of inaction, they have sprung to life and lots of miniature marigold and phlox seedlings have pushed their way up through the compost in their peat-pots. The sunflowers are doing well too and my little terrors are incredibly excited!!

Our assorted peppers are well established now. They are beginning to look as if they will be ready to come out of the green-house and into the big pot I have waiting for them in the garden by the end of the month.

The tomato plants that were living at my Mum's have now taken up residence in our garden and are thriving. They have a few flowers on them and are ready to be planted, they're just waiting for me to tidy up the borders a little.

I found a beautiful royal red buddleia for just a few pounds in my local Supermarket which is also awaiting the tidy up. I have a great spot for it and, along with our neighbour's purple buddleia that overlooks our garden, should attract lots more butterflies and bees into our little patch of green.

I've also been growing garlic from some leftover cloves which is going rather well (look out for a "how to" post in the near future!). They've shot up well and seem very happy on the windowsill in their little yoghurt pots.

Everything is growing nicely and we've been doing quite a bit of work on our garden recently too; I can't wait for Summer when it should be finished, full of beautiful flowers and looking lovely. Fingers crossed this gorgeous weather sticks around too!

#SilentSunday - 11

#SilentSunday - 10

C is for...

I found some giant coloured chalks for the bargain price of £1 in The Range about a month back and my two have made good use of them over the last 30 days or so. They love practising writing their numbers and letters on the patio, making a hopscotch to play with, drawing pictures of things they find in the garden and colouring all manner of things in with them. Nothing is safe! The patio is their main target, along with the walls of the house, the fence-panels, their playhouse and even the garden furniture. Thankfully it all washes off easily! Although I've left their masterpiece along the walls, it makes the garden so much more colourful as they keep adding to it, brick by gaudy brick :)